This week I’m starting on my Perkiomen Valley quilt pattern. As I started cutting out the necessary squares and triangles, I was reminded of a strange news report about a quilting party that happened this month 157 years ago.

Yost Yoder died in 1742 and was sorely missed from the old homestead along the Manatawny Creek.

The Pennsylvania Dutch loved to add decorations all over.

Early on, Pennsylvania Dutch families documented loved ones with fraktur, especially birth- and baptismal certificates, that were often tucked away in drawers and chests, or perhaps folded and safeguarded in the family bible.

Although we tend to identify Pennsylvania Dutch artists as practicing a distinctive folk art style, artists of Pennsylvania Dutch stock run the entire gamut of the art world.

Just off my loom are table runners that I wove in a goose eye twill variant. The pattern is based on a diamond patterned tablecloth owned by the Keim family who lived in Berks County’s Oley Valley.